June 23, 2009
Akognon is ready
Mark Twain said "Truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn’t." The following non-fiction character began as a high school freshman and yet is now on the cusp of being in the National Basketball Association. His name is Josh Akognon and this is his journey.
Akognon was numero uno for Fullerton
Josh Akognon entered Casa Grande High in Petaluma minus any burning desire associated with basketball or even sports in particular. In fact, if a ninth grader can have a so-called bucket list, anything hoops-related wouldn’t have been found on his. "I was more interested in video games," Akognon remembered. If anything sports-like was on his time-spending spectrum, it was football but that was earlier and nothing particularly serious.
But then he saw Allen Iverson’s wizardry on the television and the enchantment ramped up even greater. "What he was doing with the basketball was amazing," Akognon recalled.
Still, he didn’t get that serious about hoops until somewhere in the 10th or 11th grade -- no exact date is recalled. But even then Akognon wasn’t filled with any far-fetched at-that-time dreams or visions. "I just wanted to dribble the basketball, I didn’t care about scoring."
But the paths of Akognon and Jeremy Russotti crossed -- the latter was the boys basketball coach at Casa Grande at the time as well as a trainer of youngsters in the ways and means of succeeding on the court. Akognon was close to being a tabla rasa -- a blank slate -- when it came to basketball and relished the opportunity to work with a craftsman. Russotti saw unblemished raw material -- someone minus the usual ingrained bad habits that needed breaking -- so together, the atypical pair went to work in synergistically creating Josh Akognon, prime time basketballer.
Russotti approaches skill development different than many. As Akognon said, "Jeremy was strict. He kept me in the gym, training like 90% of the available time. I rarely played in any spring and summer tournaments because he said that’s where others were ‘perfecting their flaws.’ For this basketball newbie, it was countless reps of footwork, ballhandling and shooting until practice became, no, not perfect, but instinct."
After being named the Big West Player of the Year, Akognon hopes to be selected in the upcoming NBA Draft
And it did.
Akognon averaged over 30 points per game as a senior -- fourth best in California, with a high game of 54 -- and was named the northern California Division II Player of the Year.
Despite Akognon not being a household name to many outside of Sonoma County, then-Washington State Coach Dick Bennett liked what he saw and off went the Russotti protégé to Pullman, Washington to play basketball in the PAC-10.
His freshman season was relatively uneventful but, as a sophomore, Akognon poured in 27 points in a Cougar victory over rival Washington, a nationally-ranked squad then led by Brandon Roy. He followed that outburst with 25 against UCLA and was the team’s top scorer at season’s end with a 10.3 points per game average amid 13 starts.
Tony Bennett then succeeded his father at WSU and the same deliberate offensive style of play would be remaining as the centerpiece of the Cougars.
However, Akognon felt stymied by it.
Sure, he was in one of the top five leagues in the country and was enjoying team and individual success but a sense of straightjacketing of sorts prevailed. Getting up and down the court and the so-called ‘new’ notion of a dribble-drive offense was in vogue -- but not in Pullman.
So Akognon chose to depart from after the 2005-2006 season, seeking out a more conducive and comfortable style of play, regardless of the level of prestige and media coverage. He selected Bob Burton and the Cal State Fullerton Titans of the Big West Conference. A longtime and highly successful community college coach, Burton was known for employing an uptempo fast-faster-fastest offense and was in the midst of rehabilitating the long dormant program in Orange County.
Like the Akognon-Russotti duo, the Akognon-Burton pairing proved quite successful.
As a junior in 2007-2008, Akognon was selected the Outstanding Player of the Big West Conference tourney and then scored 31 points against Wisconsin in the opening round of the NCAA Big Dance. Fullerton compiled a 24-9 record and Akognon had 116 three-pointers, the most ever for the Titans. He also finished seventh in the nation with an .899 free throw shooting percentage while averaging 20.2 points a night.
Akognon followed that up this season by scoring 23.9 points per contest, shooting .892% from the foul line and burying 37% of his three-point attempts as a senior. But the 2008-2009 Fullerton roster had lost too much experience and missed post-season play, losing to UC Santa Barbara in the conference tournament even though Akognon was named the Big West Conference Player of the Year.
Now the 5-foot-11, 185 pound Akognon is in training for the NBA with Phil Handy, another northern California training guru who can count Blake Griffin as one of his many pupils.
Plus, Akognon is making the rounds of various pre-draft team tryouts. His latest include trips to San Antonio to display his skills set for the Spurs’ brass followed by jetting to Los Angeles to demonstrate the same to the Lakers management. The draft will be held June 25 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
About the tryouts, which have prospects traversing the cross-country in an if it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium fashion, Akognon offered, "You train specifically for them. Whenever one is coming up, I do lighter weight training, less running and more shooting so that I stay sharp. It’s tough going from hotel to hotel and city to city but I’m blessed to be in this position."
According to Akognon, a typical pre-draft workout usually involves six invitees. "We do shooting drills and the shots get charted [for misses and makes and distance], plus we play three-on-three the majority of time. You get asked to do certain breakdown moves and they have you play the system the team uses. At this level, you pick up a lot of the systems quickly so that isn’t a big issue." But he added, "the Laker triangle offense is unique."
He is facing the situation of being a scorer in college while the NBA is looking at him as a point. But such isn’t worrying him. "I’m a point with a scoring mentality and so many scouts look at you throughout the season so they know what you can do," Akognon said. Referring to the tryouts, he added, "They put you through drills for the position they see you playing in the NBA."
Here’s Handy on his charge: "Josh is one of the best kept secrets and aurguably one of the top shooters and ballhandlers in the 2009 draft.. He can create his own shot in front of anybody, plus he led the Portsmouth Invitational in assists [6.67 a game]." While there, Akognon also shot .545% on 11 three-points attempts (Portsmouth is a three game event held in early April where NBA draft prospects compete against each other on pre-assigned teams).
Handy continued, "Josh has been one of the hardest working guys in pre-draft camp this year and he has made some tremendous improvements to his game and body. There is no doubt in my mind this kid will have a great career playing pro basketball. He will prove a lot of people wrong about his ability to be a point guard in the NBA."
Here is Russotti talking about Akognon: "Josh is special. He’s a once in a generation type player who has this amazing work ethic and drive to succeed without needing to be coddled or to have his ego stroked. He basically took the path of the average player trying to make a high school team -- training for hours everyday in a gym. But the difference was that Josh had high level game to show and still trained like he was an average player. Hopefully, there will be other high level northern California players who hear his story and take it to heart. This is one kid that truly deserves to be a professional basketball player."
He added, "For every event we currently run throughout the West Coast, we preach the story of Josh and his path to success. However, every town we go to, we hear ‘Josh who?’ As Phil Handy said, he may be the best kept secret of draft. Josh has had to take the back door to stardom at every level he has been associated with, but I have no doubt he will win over the basketball people at the next level."
So this is the story of a video gamer, a late arrival to the hoops world who morphed from having an innocent fascination for what could be done with a basketball to someone who will make a generous living putting the ball in the basket and creating opportunities for others.
That’s Joshua Emmanuel Akognon’s story, with the next chapter to be written starting June 25.